Not allowed to view a property!

[MissMildred]

Just wondering if this is a 'thing'.....
We're not officially 'on the market', but are tentatively looking for a sideways or upwards move in the same area to gain a larger garden, fewer neighbours and room to extend in the future. We are in the south east but outside of London. The idea would be that if we see something that fits the bill, we'll go on the market immediately and we do have a really saleable house (school catchments/ nice interior/ not much else in the price range).
Thing is, I don't want to waste the time of agents and buyers, because if we go on the market now, it could be some time before we find something that fits the bill.
So......there is a an old cottage on the market less than 10mins away, we drive past it regularly, have seen the interior pics. Looks chocolate box from the outside and ticks the garden/location box, but clearly needs a lot of updating, despite the blurb saying 'well presented'. I can tell from comparables that it is overvalued. It has been on sale for 3 months and I keep coming back to it as it might be suitable - from the photos I can't tell if the ceiling height is low and can't see a good view of the kitchen. Hard to judge the potential.
Just contacted the agent to arrange a viewing and just had a call back to say the vendors refuse to allow viewings from anyone not on the market. I asked if it was under offer and was told 'no offers' but had lots of viewings. I explained that we were serious for the right property, but was told that the vendors are firm that they will only have viewings from people on the market or under offer. It has been on since the end of Feb.
I used to work in the London market many moons ago and never really came across this. Thing is, we could actually view it and if suitable, go straight on - hard to know until we see it! Is this normal now - AIBU?

I am a responsible adult in a professional position with qualifications which far out weigh Estate Agent qualifications

I think you'll find it's not compulsory for them to have any

I can understand that. We sold a waterside flat last year and would not accept viewers unless they were in a position to proceed. Weeds out time wasters.

Tell them you’re a cash buyer. Who do they think they are?

Who do they think they are?

I imagine they think they are homeowners who like everyone else who owns a house have the right to choose who they do or don't allow into their home. What a bizarre thing to say - but then you advocate lying, so your take on the world is quite alternative.

My view is somewhat shaped by the last person I sold to- I used hideously snobby annoying central London agents- exactly the kind who say things like this to people they don’t respect.

My buyer was very rich hedge fund manager from an establishment family. He completely cut the snobby estate agents after viewing and they turned into soppy puddles under his power. They would’ve licked his shoes.

But yes, if they think you’re poor or wet, or easily pushed around, they’ll give you the got to be on the market/ let’s see your mortgage offer/ bank statement spiel.

Loling at the idea of estate agents and lying being alternative

We've had problems trying to view properties as we aren't selling our current house yet. Lots of suspicion from Estate Agents, a couple have asked for bank statements

Can you stick a note through the door outlining your position and asking if they will let you view (and potentially sell without estate agent fees)? Or booking a b&b night sounds ideal.

The more I hear about buying and selling, the more glad I am that I did all of mine under the Scottish system. I bought my flat and then this house at fixed price (first one to offer gets it), while selling the flat at my parents' house at offers over and sealed bids. I had a month between buying this house and selling the other but the bridging loan was a reduced rate because a sale was agreed.

This happened with us - I wrote a card and explained our situation and popped it through the door with my phone number. The vendor called and was totally fine - we got a viewing directly!

This happened to us, refused a viewing because we weren't on the market. This was only with one estate agents though, other ones were very helpful. We wanted a specific area and wanted to find one we were interested in before we sold ours and had nowhere to go ... I see what the estate agents were saying but we would have put ours on the market with the same estate agents that we wanted to buy through as we thought they would also be motivated to sell ours. I know it might not have worked out that way, but house selling remains an inexact science! They missed out on the potential sale for our house and I also told other people who were putting their house on the market that they didn't market effectively as they refused viewings so they likely missed out on other business too. It depends on how fast houses are selling in a particular area I guess but it seems silly to me, and left me feeling disgruntled as a potential buyer.

The lady that viewed our property wasn’t on the market but loved ours, went on market and we accepted her offer a few weeks later when hers had gone under offer. Ours still hadn’t sold in meantime so would have been bit shortsighted of us to have refuse her!

We've just sold in Manchester. We only accepted viewings from ftbs! We had a few requests from people in chain but didn't want to bother. 14 on an open house, 6 over asking price offers.

starbarmummy you do realise that it's the Vendor (person selling the house) that sets the viewing conditions, not the EA?

We asked for this too quite a few years ago when we marketed our house. Houses on our road rarely come up and we had literally all the neighbours viewing it basically for a nosey. So we asked for only serious buyers with house already on market. It was pretty infuriating getting so many time wasters.

This happened just this week to a friend of mine, agent refused to show the house for this reason.

I think this rule is pretty standard. Also one I’ve inforced when selling in the past, with dogs, cats and children it’s a lot of work to get and keep the house presentable for potential buyers that it’s very annoying to do it all for a nosy neighbor!

I work under the principle that there’s plenty more options if the one I want is gone.

I sadly remember this one young couple who really wanted to buy my first flat when I sold that, to buy my first family home. They weren’t the highest bidder (only by 2k or so) but they where enthusiastic about my cats, seemed lovely and would have gotten on so well with out neighbors at the time. I was warned by my EA that their law firm had a reputation for being unreliable and over exaggerate what buyers could afford. But I held out for them but sadly it fell through. I felt really bad about it.

Ended up selling to an older couple who were really hard work. Even our lease holder ended up threatening them with increasing the lease rent to get them to get on with proceedings. Never met anyone like them!

Any way, major tangent. Sorry!

We held an open day for when we weren’t London based. One major rift, one day of people in my house, sold the next day. Brilliant!

Good luck OP, it’s all ups and down these things, but if to meant to be, I think it will be!

Sorry ** we LIVED in London and did a major CLEAN not rift... I do worry about autocorrect sometimes.

I work under the principle that there’s plenty more options if the one I want is gone.

Not if you want to buy in a specific village there are likely to be no options at all.

Not necessarily livingmybestlife plenty of estate agents hav wthis as a blanket rule for potential customers they think are poor

We sold recently and stipulated only cash buyers with proof of funds seen by the agent, or SSTC with an AIP in place. Why would you bother looking at houses unless you’re proceedable?

We lost out on a perfect house that sold within days of being marketed, a month before we marketed ours. C’est la vie.

From the other side, a friend has now had her house on the market for almost a year. Marketed in June, SSTC within a month. By November that had fallen through because the agent did not check the buyers had a valid AIP, and after much faffing around buyers admitted they were unable to get a mortgage.
Second offer in March via different agent, who lied about buyer having cash and it was only after some weeks it became apparent a mortgage was needed that again they could not get.
Friend still desperate to move and still on the market because the market has since changed, and all people see on RM is that house has been marketed for a year.

Estate agent may be willing to bend the rules if you promise him an instruction to sell yours if you like what you see.

To theluggage: your friend could consider changing agents? Then it comes back as fresh. There will be people looking who weren't looking a year ago.

Many people these days will not consider viewings if your house is not even on the market. Cant blame them really

Er no! Sorry no way! Everyone says that and half the time people just want to be nosey! We had one family when we were selling who didn’t want us to know their names the usual financials and weren’t under offer! We had four good offers so why would we even consider them? Our house was very saleable in catchment for excellent state primaries and some of top private schools and an excellent road but we still had various hiccups along the way. I suggest you put your house on the market but make it very clear to estate agent followed up with a conversation/letter with any potential buyers what your situation is and go from there. Good Luck x

To luggage, son had 40% deposit, mortgage company faffed around for four months, it was a nightmare, DIL was on the phone to agent in tears at times. They eventually completed. Mortgage folk have a lot to answer for. Solicitors are slow but mortgages are slower.